Digital Commons Network^™

Washington University Magazine, April 2024

Washington University Magazine

No abstract provided.

Limiting Tourism To Sustainable Levels: Options For HawaiʻI, Barry D. Solomon

Natural Resources Journal

Many popular tourist destinations across the world are experiencing overtourism, which can cause a variety of negative environmental and socio-cultural impacts. As a result, an increasing number of governments are searching for solutions to overtourism. In the United States, Hawaiʻi needs such solutions. Until recently, many legal scholars and other observers believed that restricting tourism may be unconstitutional. However, a careful examination of the United States Supreme Court’s decisions on the Dormant Commerce Clause and the interstate right to travel show that certain restrictions on tourism may be constitutionally permissible. Indeed, recent federal court rulings support state action designed to …

It’S “Goni” Be Okay: A Guide To Developing Your Occupational Therapy Career Within The Athletic Population, Grace Kleinvachter

Occupational Therapy Capstones

Background: With around 30 million people participating in athletics each year, injury prevention, management, and treatment are a necessity with the inevitability of injuries (Host & Mankie, 2018). Occupational therapy (OT) is a versatile profession that has the scope of practice to provide many different types of treatment as well as education to athletes and their supporters (Host & Mankie, 2018). In general, OT as a whole has previously overlooked how the profession can be of use to a population such as athletes who are more commonly seen in the sports medicine setting by physical therapists and athletic trainers (Host …

Disorganization Of Actin Within The Shafts Of Stereocilia Is A Key Difference Between Temporary And Permanent Noise-Induced Hearing Loss (Nihl), Shadan Hadi

Theses and Dissertations--Physiology

During sound stimulation, mechanosensory stereocilia of the auditory hair cell pivot around their bases, where their actin cores become denser and form rootlets protruding into the cuticular plate. It is believed that actin-based cuticular plate provides a stable mechanical support for stereocilia, while rootles are responsible for their pivotal flexibility and life-long resilience to mechanical stimuli. Not surprisingly, damage to the stereocilia bundles is known as a hallmark of permanent noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL). Yet, despite decades of NIHL studies, it is still unknown which ultrastructural changes in the stereocilia bundles are evoked directly by mechanical overstimulation.

Here, we explored …

Differential Effects Of Traumatic Brain Injury On Preinjury And Postinjury Born Hippocampal Neural Precursor Cells, Hannah Downing

Theses and Dissertations--Physiology

Moderate contusive traumatic brain injury (TBI) results in neuronal cell death in the cortex as well as cell death and damage in underlying structures, including the hippocampus. The hippocampus is critically involved in learning and memory and is one of two regions in the brain capable of undergoing neurogenesis throughout adulthood. Adult hippocampal neurogenesis is a complex sequence of events necessary for a neural progenitor cell (NPC) to differentiate into a mature granule cell neuron located in the granule cell layer of the dentate gyrus. TBI results in a preferential loss of immature neurons in the granule cell layer of …

Anticipating Combustion: Suffering's Potential For Finding Meaning, Perseverance, And Transcendence, Alexander Alvarez

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

Arising from the complications of an underprivileged and impoverished background this thesis focuses on exposing the grotesque consequences of conflicting ideologies through personal and societal suffering while in search of universal connections to showcase the need for compassion and understanding. My artistic practice is utilized as an entry point to have difficult discussions, a tool for teaching themes of injustice, inequality, and mistreatment. The traumatizing experience of poverty or corruption has the potential to be transmuted into something beneficial. I utilize discarded, low valued, unwanted, and damaged materials in my artmaking to symbolize transfiguration, an advanced state of former self. …

Lucas' Gift: Exploring The Importance Of Self-Care, Kevaun L. Gayle

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

Lucas' Gift is a traditionally animated short film focusing on themes of selflessness and self-care. In an alternate world where magic exists, lives a young boy from a small community experiencing a drought. After being gifted a magical plant growing necklace from the Good Witch, Lucas works diligently to feed his community. After working himself to exhaustion, he learns the importance of self-care. The artistic direction is influenced by works such as Steven Universe and Craig of the Creek.

Campbell & The Cryptid: Mindfulness And Mediality, Elaina Buffkin

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

Campbell & The Cryptid is a short film that intertwines the bittersweet intensity of imagination with the nostalgic medium of hand drawn two-dimensional animation. Campbell is an eleven-year-old girl who loves adventure and spending time with her brother. But when he moves away, she carries on her explorations on her own. This leads her to discover a strange friend in the woods. The experience helps her understand that the unknown is not always as bad as imagined. Influences on the artistic direction include irreverent media such as Calvin & Hobbes, as well as more speculative works such as Over …

From The Slime And Mud: Rumination As Fuel For Artistic Process, Olivia Van Natta

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

This thesis examines my work to harness ruminative thinking as a driving force for my art practice. With a combination of drawing and painting in watercolor pencil, I activate and engage with rumination through the act of sublimation as defined in clinical psychology. Repetition of process and hand-rendered detail serve as outward channels for my obsessive cyclical thoughts. Based on my experience living with the physical effects of a hyperactive mind, I depict botanical life symbolically in an effort to communicate impressions of the bodily sensations associated with rumination, such as palpable tension, anxiety, or dread. In my research, I …

Profiling The Molecular And Clinical Landscape Of Glioblastoma Utilizing The Oncology Research Information Exchange Network Brain Cancer Database, Alexandra N. Demetriou, Frances Chow, David W. Craig, Michelle G. Webb, D. Ryan Ormond, James Battiste, Arnab Chakravarti, Howard Colman, John L. Villano, Bryan P. Schneider, James K. C. Liu, Michelle L. Churchman, Gabriel Zada

Markey Cancer Center Faculty Publications

Background. Glioblastoma exhibits aggressive growth and poor outcomes despite treatment, and its marked var- iability renders therapeutic design and prognostication challenging. The Oncology Research Information Exchange Network (ORIEN) database contains complementary clinical, genomic, and transcriptomic profiling of 206 glio- blastoma patients, providing opportunities to identify novel associations between molecular features and clinical outcomes.

Methods. Survival analyses were performed using the Logrank test, and clinical features were evaluated using Wilcoxon and chi-squared tests with q-values derived via Benjamini-Hochberg correction. Mutational analyses util- ized sample-level enrichments from whole exome sequencing data, and statistical tests were performed using the one-sided Fisher Exact test …

Net Zero And Settler Futurity, Jesse Goldstein

Sociology Publications

Net Zero ideology promises that current and ongoing emissions can be partially offset by ‘negative emissions’ strategies such as carbon capture and sequestration, allowing carbon intensive firms to narrate themselves as agents that are solving – not causing – the climate crisis. This represents a shift in liberal and corporate environmentalism away from both denial and delay, towards a new strategy acknowledging the need to end fossil fuel use while urgently deferring transformations to a future made possible by not-yet developed technological innovations. This paper argues that a through-line of settler futurity provides affective infrastructure potent enough to transect opposing …

Why You Should Send Your Child To School With Lunch, Alina Zhang

Celebrating Writers and Writing in our Communities

No abstract provided.

My Body As A Journey Accessing Pre-Colonial Identity For Healing Intergenerational Transgender Shame, Jennifer Lagman

Art Therapy | Master's Theses

A graduate student in art therapy wrote this heuristic paper to explore shame's role as both a negative internal feeling and a cultural and social tool for evaluating and regulating behavior. As a transgender woman, she examines what it is like to be labeled as Filipino and deal with being transgender. Tiny advances have been made in the understanding of shame within the context of minority transgender self-research. Using art to expose those feelings associated with shame, balance them with affirmations, and ground them in native identity are key aspects of this process. Consequently, meeting one's shadow becomes a necessity …

Art Therapy Assessment And Sense Of Safety, Sophie C. Restall

Art Therapy | Master's Theses

This study aimed to understand how artmaking experiences during assessment may influence the formation of the therapeutic alliance at the start of therapy. Rather than measuring therapeutic alliance directly, this study identified psychological safety as a vital component of the therapeutic relationship and an important topic of study via literature on attachment theory. Using a mixed-methods, repeated-measures design, this study compared artmaking experiences and feelings of psychological safety in response to two interventions––a Human Figure Drawing (HFD) assessment and an Expressive Therapies Continuum (ETC) assessment. Overall, qualitative data from semi-structured interviews and quantitative data from the Art-Based Intervention (ABI) questionnaire …

Surviving The Megadrought, Warigia Bowman

Faculty Scholarship

According to NASA, the Earth experienced its hottest day in recorded history on July 22, 2024, surpassing the previous hottest day, which was set in 2023. The year 2024 will enter the record books as the hottest year since pre-industrial times. The temperatures in 2024 exceeded the year 2023, during which the average global surface temperature was the warmest ever recorded in the past 174 years. These meteorological facts—although alarming on their own—are the backdrop for the legal analysis contained in this Article. The driest states in the Southwest, including Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah, have long relied …

How Long-Term, Aerobic Exercise Can Be Used To Treat Substance Use Disorders, Sydney Baldridge

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

No abstract provided.

Examining Ecological Imperialism: Implications For The Built & Natural Environment In Vietnam, Sophie Creager-Roberts

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

No abstract provided.

Clinical Simulation Workshop For Healthcare Undergrads, Chloe Bennett, Erica Y. Hinojosa, Jennifer Roye, Steven Gellman

UTA Libraries Staff Publications - Archive

This is curriculum for a full 10-day clinical experience workshop designed for undergraduate healthcare students. It includes lesson plans and all accompanying digital materials.

Critical Role Of Immediate Early Genes, Ashley Goss

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

No abstract provided.

Distal Urogenital Anatomy And Epithelial Morphology In The Male Cajun Chorus Frog, Pseudacris Fouquettei (Anura: Hylidae), S.E. Trauth

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

I examined the microanatomy of the distal urogenital system in male Cajun Chorus Frogs (Pseudacris fouquettei) from a small sample (n = 6) collected in central Arkansas in March 2018 and February 2023. Specifically, my primary objectives were to investigate the following: (1) the paired Wolffian (urogenital) ducts caudally from the kidneys to their merging with the urodeum of the cloaca, (2) the structure of seminal vesicles (if present), and (3) the epithelial morphologies among the distal urogenital tract, the posterior alimentary canal, and cloaca. My histological analysis confirmed the presence of ampullae (sperm storage structures) as mid-duct expansions of …

Shell Damage Patterns In Limpkin Mussel Middens At Bois D’Arc Lake, Arkansas, G.R. Graves

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

The Limpkin (Aramus guarauna) is rapidly colonizing the lower Mississippi Valley from recently established Gulf Coast populations. Anecdotal reports indicate that it feeds on freshwater mussels and gastropods in Arkansas, but without documentation. Here I report an analysis of Limpkin shell middens from Bois d’Arc Lake in Hempstead Co. Limpkins at this location preyed heavily on Pyganodon grandis (Giant Floater), a large mussel species widely distributed in the Mississippi Valley. Limpkins employ vigorous bill blows to pierce holes in mussels and usually attack the anterior end of the shell. Video and photographs of feeding birds provide new insight on the …

Using Bird Odor To Deter Mammalian Predators From Depredating Shorebird Nests, Nicole D. Defelice

Open Access Master's Theses

Managing for populations of nesting piping plovers (Charadruis melodus) along the Atlantic coast has always been a challenge for state, federal, and conservation organizations. Though piping plovers face numerous threats, such as human disturbance and habitat degradation, controlling nest predators remain a challenge. In this study, we evaluated a non-lethal technique to deter mammalian predators from disturbing and predating shorebird nests by deploying chemically-extracted bird odors in areas where piping plovers historically nest, with the idea that predators will key in on the scents, realize there is no “food reward” associated with the scent, and then lose interest …

Genotypic And Phenotypic Analysis Of Crassostrea Virginica Populations For Use In Aquaculture, Angel Carrasquillo

Open Access Master's Theses

Increased production of eastern oysters (Crassostrea virginica) will be needed to meet consumer demand for seafood. To meet this demand for seafood in the face of disease and climate change, selective breeding has been proposed as a solution. This study evaluated the phenotypic traits of survival, growth, yield and disease acquisition of four wild eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) populations and two commercial lines from the Northeastern US at three grow-out sites in Rhode Island. We also investigated the genetic parameters of genetic difference between subpopulations (F_ST), inbreeding, percent of polymorphic loci, and heterozygosity in …

Evaluation Of The Effects Of O-Glcnacylation And Hypoxia On Estradiol Production By Bovine Granulosa Cells, Lauren Decastro

Open Access Master's Theses

The global population is on the rise putting pressure on the agricultural industry to increase production and increase the global food supply. The dairy industry has responded to this pressure by genetically selecting for higher milk production. This increase in production has coincided with a decline in fertility among dairy cows, due in part to a loss of reproductive cyclicity. Ovarian cyclicity and, in turn, reproductive cyclicity, is dependent upon proper development of ovarian follicles and the function of the cells that comprise the follicle and support the oocyte. One of these cell types is the granulosa cell. Granulosa cells …

Migratory Patterns Of Sand Tiger Sharks (Carcharias Taurus) Along The Us East Coast, Bethany Deloof

Open Access Master's Theses

Sand tigers (Carcharias taurus) are often taken as bycatch in commercial fisheries and captured by recreational anglers despite being prohibited. They also have one of the lowest rates of reproduction among elasmobranchs, producing two offspring every two or three years. These traits have generated concern about the sustainability of sand tiger populations, both globally and along the US East Coast, and interest in characterizing movements and essential habitat for this species. A total of 396 sand tigers, ranging from 78 - 246 cm fork length and 100.33 - 285 cm total length, were tagged with acoustic transmitters from …

Walking The Red Carpet: Hollywood And Censorship In China, Sheryl Soundar

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

United States V. Sioux Nation Of Indians: A History Of Indigenous Diplomacy In The Black Hills, Elliott Lelaure

Master's Theses and Capstones

This thesis traces the history of Sioux-American competition for the Black Hills region of South Dakota from the Lakota’s discovery of the mountains in 1776 to the aftermath of United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians, a landmark 1980 Supreme Court case that awarded financial compensation to the tribes for the unconstitutional seizure of sacred lands. It argues that treaty negotiations in the nineteenth century – and attempts to resolve treaty-based disputes in the twentieth – testify to an international quality in the Sioux-American relationship. Far from passive victims of American expansion, it shows that Lakotas have consistently developed, debated, …

Occurrence And Fate Of Per- And Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (Pfas) In Atmospheric Deposition, Surface Waters, And Sediments Discharging To The Great Bay Estuary, New Hampshire, Katherine Alexina Wieck

Master's Theses and Capstones

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a class of several thousand synthetic organic compounds commonly utilized in the manufacturing of consumer products and in industrial processes since their initial development in the 1940s. Although the widespread presence of PFAS in environmental matrices derives from many different industrial and domestic sources, recent studies characterizing their fate in aqueous systems have primarily focused on point source discharge, such as those from wastewater treatment facilities, airports, and industrial complexes. Focusing on point sources neglects atmospheric deposition, an important diffuse background source of PFAS into surface waters and sediments. Furthermore, atmospheric deposition is likely …

Carotenoids And The Associations With Gut Microbiota Bacterial Populations In Chronic Kidney Disease Hemodialysis Patients, Andrea Kendall

Theses and Dissertations

Background: With increased prevalence and mortality of chronic kidney disease (CKD), treatment by renal replacement therapy using hemodialysis (HD) has increased in parallel. Emerging evidence suggests that gut microbiota play an important role in the progression of CKD; influential dietary factors have not been studied exhaustively to date.

Objective: To explore the relationships between dietary carotenoid intake, the abundance of specific gut microbiota, and symptom-related outcomes in patients with CKD on HD.

Methods: This cross-sectional study investigated the gut microbiota characteristics relative to carotenoid intake in CKD subjects on HD in central Illinois (n = 20). The Block Dialysis …

Decreasing Compassion Fatigue In Inpatient Nurses Using Debriefing And Group Care Program, Hanh Nguyen

Doctor of Nursing Practice Final Project Abstract

Purpose: The quality improvement project's purpose was to use a group care program to decrease compassion fatigue (work-related stress) in nurses. The project aimed to reduce compassion fatigue in nurses by 25% and nurse turnover rates by 10% post-intervention.

Background: The project was implemented on two inpatient units in Texas. Decrease in compassion fatigue can help improve nurse well-being and nurse retention, promoting safe quality nursing care.

Methodology: The Professional Quality of Life Scale (ProQOL) survey measured compassion satisfaction and burnout pre-intervention. Twelve weekly program sessions were completed using strategies: debriefing, breathing exercise, and muscle relaxation. A …